In the pitch-black corridor, that staircase leading underground was plainly displayed before the two of them.
Takumi could be certain that before today, he had never seen any staircase in his house leading to an underground area. Moreover, this staircase was nothing more than bare concrete, completely different from the brick-faced stairs in his home. At a glance, it was obvious that it was not something this house originally possessed.
"Upstairs."
After only a brief glance at the staircase, Takumi pulled Miko and headed upward.
This house was continuously establishing an ever-deepening connection with that Instance world. The fact that the view outside the living room window had earlier turned into a corridor had already proven this. If they continued to hesitate, the various exits of the building would likely become completely sealed, leaving no way to escape at all.
They had to get out of here before it was too late.
Step—
The sound of a foot landing on the stairs was exceptionally clear.
So clear that both Takumi and Miko could distinctly hear that, at that moment, it was not only their own footsteps that were echoing in succession.
Takumi looked forward and saw, at the corner of the staircase, students walking upstairs one after another. He saw the outdated style of their uniforms, the mottled bloodstains clinging to the fabric, and the smiling faces turned toward him.
Thud—
A student's head fell to the ground.
Almost completely smashed flat, drenched in blood and shattered beyond recognition, the head rolled down the stairs, bouncing as it tumbled to Takumi's feet.
Thud—thud, thud—
More heads rolled down from above.
Along with dark-red blood, surging down the stairs.
They fell to the feet of Takumi and Miko, rolling past them and continuing to cascade downward along the staircase.
They could not continue going upstairs.
Because above the stairs was not the familiar second floor of Takumi's home, but a school corridor—where headless students stood, aberrant figures standing silently in the light of the setting sun.
The light had created a deceptive illusion, making Takumi think the second floor was still normal. He had almost walked straight into it.
Fortunately, even with the situation already extremely urgent, he had still retained basic vigilance and caution. After taking the first step, he sensed something was wrong and stopped. That was when he saw the scene just now.
Beside him, Miko could no longer speak. She looked wooden, merely following Takumi instinctively.
At this moment, the pitch-black corridor on the first floor was changing again. The walls were almost completely covered in blood-red graffiti. Takumi could barely make out phrases such as [Play with me], [Believe her], [My guardian angel], [You are my goddess], [She is pure]. But most of it had already lost any meaning, nothing more than chaotic smears of blood.
The headless students who had been following behind them had disappeared.
But the number of corpses in the corridor had increased compared to before.
The boy hanging upside down from the ceiling, his skull crushed by twisted wire, continued to drip blood downward.
The girl lying on the ground, her hands and feet severed, the hollowed eye sockets stuffed with erasers, her mouth open, a stapler connected to her tongue.
The man nailed to the wall with iron spikes, his abdomen split open, a skinned humanoid object stuffed inside his belly.
The woman whose back of the head had been pierced through with a hook, hanging as it emerged from her nostrils, her neck connected to a complete human skeletal structure dripping with fresh blood.
…
The stench of blood spread through the air.
With every step taken, one would inevitably tread on chunks of flesh or internal organs.
Flies darted wildly in all directions; black and yellow maggots writhed within the rotting flesh.
Miko wanted to vomit, only to realize that she could no longer bring anything up.
The hell-like tableau shattered her mental defenses. After she had nearly collapsed completely, Miko discovered that she was no longer able to normally express even the physiological reaction she should have had toward the utterly nauseating and horrifying scene before her.
She moved forward entirely blank-faced, led by Takumi ahead of her, step by step treading across this blood-red corridor.
[Do you like it?]
All of a sudden, it seemed as though someone had spoken from behind her.
But Miko, already completely dazed, did not notice the voice at all. Let alone respond—she did not even pay the slightest attention to the sound asking her from behind, nor did she spare it a single thought.
Step—
The clear sound of a foot landing on the wooden floor made Miko widen her eyes slightly.
All of the corpses, all of the blood, vanished in the next instant.
The corridor was spotless, nothing existed there, no different from how it had been when she had first entered Takumi's house and passed through it.
What was going on?
Just a moment ago it had been full of those terrifying things—how had everything suddenly returned to normal?
Miko felt her mind growing more and more chaotic; she was no longer able to properly analyze or think through the scene before her.
Takumi, however, remained silent as ever. He showed no ripple of emotion because of the situation before them, merely continuing forward.
He quickly led Miko to the other end of the corridor, reached out and opened the door, and then dim yellow daylight shone in from behind it.
Outside the door was the backyard of Takumi's house.
At least for the moment, the entire backyard appeared completely normal, without anything Aberration about it.
But Takumi did not step out through the door.
He lowered his head and looked down at his feet, at the gap beneath the door.
Bright light was clearly shining in from outside the window.
Yet beneath the gap of this door, there was pitch darkness, without even the slightest trace of light.
In the next instant, Takumi raised his hand and fired a shot. The dim yellow sunlight vanished at once. Accompanied by the sound of shattering glass, everything outside the door abruptly changed. There was no backyard at all, nor any sunlight. There was only a gloomy room, one entirely made of concrete, bare and hollow, with rows of bodies laid out on the ground covered in white cloth.
A shattered incandescent bulb fell to the floor.
At the very moment the light disappeared, Takumi saw a small, thin figure standing inside the room—gone in a flash.
The torch was still burning soundlessly.
Takumi turned his head and looked behind him, and what he saw was a dilapidated corridor covered in cobwebs and dust, with various debris scattered about.
On one side of the corridor wall, in bright red paint, was the marking: [-1].
"We've reached the basement level."
Takumi spoke in a low voice to Miko.
"Eh?"
The girl froze slightly, then turned to look at the marking on the wall, unable to understand what was going on.
"I roughly understand now. From the very beginning, our senses have been affected; what we were seeing was a mixture of truth and falsehood. The step when we went upstairs was actually going downstairs. Then, when we realized that going upstairs would make us run into those things, and we started going downstairs instead, that was when we truly began descending."
That was why the headless students who had originally been behind them suddenly appeared above them.
At that time, he and Miko had in fact already been standing on the staircase leading downward.
And after that, the utterly nauseating corridor he and Miko saw was actually when their senses were most strongly affected, to the point that they could no longer distinguish that they were stepping down floor by floor. What followed was the disguised first floor—the disguised scene that had attempted to lure him into entering the room.
Takumi gave a slight shake of his head. Having already figured out what had happened, there was nothing in his mind except, 'Fuck.'
{Takumi-kun! Takumi-kun! Are you still there?}
Maki's voice transmitted into his mind through the mental link. Judging from the degree of panic in her voice, she had probably been calling for quite a while.
{I'm still here. I almost fell for it just now. How much time do I have left?}
While replying to Maki, Takumi continued forward with Miko, advancing toward the front of the dark corridor.
{There are 12 minutes left. You were out of contact for more than half an hour. We've already found Kogawa Shu and Aoyama Nanami and come over to them, but neither of them has any experience with the "Campus Uncanny" Instance. Mr. Kogawa is asking whether you're still at your own house. Have you entered somewhere abnormal?}
Maki asked anxiously. Takumi could almost picture what she looked like right now.
{Unfortunately, I've already entered an unfamiliar environment. It looks like a place that has been abandoned for quite some time. Ask him if I still have a way to return. Also, teleportation can't be used anymore, right? Otherwise, with your personality, you wouldn't have refrained from trying to come over.}
Takumi replied while continuing forward. At this moment, he had already seen the staircase not far ahead.
{…Yes. The power of the blessing cannot be used, because we are now… already separated into different Instances. That was the response I received when I tried to use the blessing. But Mr. Kogawa says you still have a way back. As long as you find the place where you entered and make sure not to bring out "anything that shouldn't be taken out," you can leave normally. There isn't much time left—you have to hurry.}
As Maki's words fell, Takumi had just reached the staircase.
{Got it. Don't worry. I'm very strong—I won't fall because of this kind of difficulty. Trust me.}
After saying this, Takumi looked at the corridor before him that extended downward, stretching into the darkness, and felt a faint headache coming on.
He turned around and looked at Miko, who had not let out a single scream the entire way, nor cried aloud—only her eyes were red. He looked at the hand that had extended from her sleeve and was gripping him tightly, and at her body that had nearly curled into itself. After a moment of hesitation and thought, he finally asked her: "Right now, in your eyes, is there anything around me?"
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